Florida District Courts of Appeal, 1992

Turner v. Marks

Turner v. Marks
Florida District Courts of Appeal · Decided December 30, 1992 · Downey, Farmer, James, Warner
612 So. 2d 610; 1992 Fla. App. LEXIS 13055; 1992 WL 385493 (Southern Reporter, Second Series)

Turner v. Marks

Opinion of the Court

PER CURIAM.

AFFIRMED.

FARMER and DOWNEY, JJ., and JAMES, C., Senior Judge, concur. WARNER, J., concurs specially with opinion.

Concurring Opinion

WARNER, Judge,

concurring specially.

This is an appeal from an order striking pleadings and entering a default based upon discovery abuses. Appellant claims that he complied with all outstanding orders compelling discovery. However, his compliance amounts to the continual furnishing of evasive and incomplete answers to discovery requests (which according to Rule 1.380(a)(3), Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, is the equivalent of a failure to answer). At some point “mere foot dragging” becomes conduct which evinces deliberate callousness and willful disregard of the court’s authority. See Commonwealth Federal Sav. and Loan Ass’n v. Tubero, 569 So.2d 1271 (Fla. 1990). And while I can find on this record a violation of the letter of the law by the filing of patently evasive and incomplete answers to interrogatories after being ordered to answer them, I also note a willful violation of the “spirit” of the law as evidenced by the two year effort, mostly unsuccessful, to extract information from this defendant. The trial court did not abuse its discretion.

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